Bharat Rakshak

Johann

I am unable to go into the history of violence in shia-sunni relations but the two major events that have apparntly sparked bloodshed between shias and sunnis are Zia's Islamization of Pakistan and the American invasion of Iraq. In Pakistan there has been a proliferation of sunni groups killing shi...

Johann

Johann, I don't agree. India should not claim nor allow others to make India the fall guy for TSP failings. Besides what TTP is doing is showing the Kabila guards they don't own TSP the Islamic Stae as they are not Islamist enough. Ramana, I don't think that the implication of what I said is that I...

Johann

In Syria, what credibility did al-mobs have? Were ISIL and other such jihadi warmongers elected (within Syria by Syrians) or selected by outsiders? Vishva, once again Yanukovych was thrown out by his own parliament, which came to power through reasonably credible electoral process. When was the las...

Johann

Johann , couple of quick points. 1 ) Ukraine is not a homogenous society , not most of Ukraine wants to join EU AA or is enthusiastic about it. There is West of Ukraine which is the Agricultural area and there is North and South of Ukraine which is Industrial heartland. ...So the whole notion that ...

Johann

Johann, 1) Are you saying that crimeans do not want to join russia? - I have a lot fewer problems with what happened in Crimea than what is happening in Eastern Ukraine since there is overwhelming consent on the part of the Crimean population. - The real problem is that Russian troops were at the l...

Johann

Johann: As I see it, your argument is that joining EU is not the same as being part of NATO . However, that does not quite work. EU is essentially one nation: one big parliament, one immense bureaucracy, free cross-border movement, free cross-border employment, one currency, generally uniform laws....

Johann

Austin, a) Please go back and check the timeline, and the terms of the agreements. b) Deals and changes to deals this big require public consensus. c) There's plenty of ways for Russia to deal with the potential problem of 'cheap EU imports' that dont involve invading and/or annexing half of Ukraine...

Johann

Ashish,

Its not just about the security of supplies. The US is less dependent on Saudi energy imports, but the Saudis still have more power than anyone other producer in the world when it comes to setting global market oil prices. Energy prices have a critical impact on overall economic performance.

Johann

Hello, Continuing the discussion. 1) I don't know how many people here have read Feroz Hassan Khan's 'Eating Grass,' a history of the Pakistani strategic weapons programme. Given that he was at the heart of the Pakistan Army policy process on the bomb what he has to say is interesting. Pakistan's pu...

Johann

>>Obama is undergoing a similar transformation over Crimea after having pushed an agenda of 'reset'. Obama has sent only one message so far. I am not interested in the affairs of the world. He is fully living up to the democratic party's FP adage. No Spine. There's no question that is the impressio...

Johann

Shreeman, Theo, Re. Ukraine. There's no question that Russia can play spoiler. Even if Russia does not take a bigger chomp out of Ukraine, it has the means and the will to cause severe economic and political disruption for at least a few years. So yes, a cooperative solution is the best bet. But you...

Johann

I don't about that Philip, but I am not sure what strategic or even military objectives have been met by US/Britain/NATO. What was the point of it all? There was never any long lasting consensus on how the mission of securing Afghanistan was to be achieved. The actual mission plan kept drifting rea...

Johann

Carter turned from a proponent of detente to a confrontation between Brezhnev's decision to deploy SS-20s to the Warsaw Pact and the invasion of Afghanistan. Obama is undergoing a similar transformation over Crimea after having pushed an agenda of 'reset'. Both of them were domestically and internat...

Johann

UlanBatori wrote:Maybe more like huge fear of losing face back home?

Pingo! Err I mean..Bing..never mind. Too soon?

Johann

There are logical inconsistencies in the logic. Russia of today is not Brezhnev's USSR, that it has to defend a world wide ideology. No ideology, no loss. Czechoslovakia was not just the defence of ideology in the abstract. It was the defence of a sphere of interest, and system of government. The C...

Johann

Thank you for the warm welcome Ramana & United Breweries! Johann! Good to see you here. No disagreement on the above. My 6th coujin was merely pointing out that Indian public opinion is not so much in favor of leaning towards the US as to alienate China completely. Absolutely true that a "f...

Johann

O Mongolian Sage. Firstly, Ukraine on a NATO accession path is only likely *if* Putin annexes more of the country. 40,000 troops may seem like a lot, but its not if you actually think you're going to fight a war against another state. He's a game player - I suspect he'll only move if he thinks Weste...

Johann

There's going to be some important impacts if Russia does actually send troops in to Eastern Ukraine when all of this dust settles. - Whats left of Ukraine will quite possibly be on a NATO accession path, and there will be no Russian electorate to act as an anti-NATO lobby. This is certainly not wha...

Johann

If it isn't my long-lost Mongolian friend Ulan-Batorji!! :) I'd been concerned that the old ticker had given in out of sheer boredom after one too many faculty meetings. I will of course beg to differ. I don't think the GoI has given anything away to the USG for free. Its bought some weapons with it...

Johann

Habal, American consumer demand helps drive the Chinese economy. Buying American debt helps keep that going, and US Treasury Bonds are a reliable investment. Africa provides the raw materials and the energy resources that keep Chinese factories going, producing the jobs and the revenue China needs t...

Johann

Egypt's need for economic and military assistance in its post-British era has been consistently enormous between the corruption and the demands of a poor and fast growing population right next to the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Nasser from 1952 to 1956 relied on US aid until the conflict wit...

Johann

A few observations. I apologise if they repeat points already made, I haven't been able to follow the thread here closely. - The Israelis are absolutely furious at Obama for appearing indecisive. They believe it weakens US threat of forces against Iran's enrichment programme, which is their number o...

Johann

Johann ji, What you speak of is maybe for an old world. And in the old world west was not the hyperpower it is now to game scenarios consistently where its sure to be the victor. So it took gambles - lost some but won most... You should know how much is stake in the ME ("wells of power" a...

Johann

Singha, The Israelis have heavily invested in effective ballistic missile and rocket defences in the last 2 decades for good reason. Arrow and Iron Dome have full operational capability and have been deployed, in addition to the PAC-3. The IDF's major combat operations (as opposed to it special oper...

Johann

Lilo, a) One of the scariest facts of the way the world really works is how much bad decision making there really is at the highest levels of every government. Conspiracy theorists find this impossible to believe, but even the most sophisticated intelligence gathering can not substitute for sound po...

Johann

It is my belief, that the ground strategy will be left to Syrian conventional forces. Syrian Special forces, Iranian Al Quds Brigade, and Hezbollah, will blaze a S.A.M. Trail through Israel , and capture Haifa and Tel Aviv in 3 -4 days depending on the resistance. The Golani, Brigade, and other I.D...

Johann

If Turkey is attacked, NATO becomes involved automatically! UK also joins in via NATO irrespective of parliament vote! Correct, Article V of the NATO Charter would be invoked by Turkey. Germany, the UK, and all other NATO states that have chosen not to participate would be faced with a major politi...

Johann

In the end by the time the nuclear explosive was weaponized, WWII was practically over. The Soviet invasion of Manchuria showed how weakened the IJA and IJN had become. It took the Soviets only one week to run over a country the size of Western Europe with the complete annihilation of the famed Kwa...

Johann

so this is about obama's h&d? and putin's h&d so basically - the syrians are musharraffed This is about the h&d of every government that claims to be relevant to the ME situation - the US, Russia, France, Saudi, Iran, Qatar and Turkey. The British public has decided the game isn't worth...

Johann

p.s. for those who were asking earlier why the Syrian government might use Sarin rather than VX on the rebels. Syria's VX stocks are relatively limited and their production capacity is/was a work in progress. They are probably reserved as the country's only strategic deterrent against Israel's nucle...

Johann

The Obama administration could have intervened any point in Syria the last 2 years, and the policy options would have been much cleaner. There are very specific reasons why they have changed gears at this moment; - The Syrian regime now has the initiative on the battlefield thanks to the use of gas ...

Johann

The point is that these two gentlemen were as susceptible to such ideologies as anybody else in Egypt at that time was and it would be no surprise if they had been influenced. But they simply were not influenced or susceptible. I don't know if you actually read the excerpt I linked above. It is an ...

Johann

SS, Nasser was never at any point an Islamist. He and the Free Officers as I said did briefly try to work with the MB in the 1940s on the basis of a common commitment to Egyptian sovereignty from semi-colonial rule (ie nationalist terms), but the association was never comfortable for either party, a...

Johann

The scale of the most recent chemical attack in Damascus is very much at odds with the previous highly tactical use of CW in battlefield situations in Syria. As I said I remain unconvinced that it was a deliberate regime attack. However below is a detailed and quite un-sensational account on the use...

Johann

Johann I did not - I was merely replying to you using MSF as the "certification agency" for this. I have Canadian friends who are in MSF and I have heard interesting stories. A lot of good people in it - people who have earned a lot of good karma.. but.... the powers to be are vicious and...

Johann

But the fundamental question is why do EA need more Islam? Zia needed more Islam to hold West pakistan together in the face of separation of Bangladesh and increasing threat of the Soviets in the West..... The PA needed Islamism to justify dictatorship, and the military's untouchability when civili...

Johann

Surya, MSF has made no claims about who launched the attack, so I'm not sure why you've raised questions about its reliability here. Similarly I may have read you wrong but it seemed as if you were questioning whether they symptoms they were reporting were actually consistent with nerve agents. That...

Johann

Niran posted some factual info - no one ( from the assad did this true believer camp is answering that) The question of whether a chemical attack took place is different from who is responsible for it. Well I can only assume that's because no one else (including Niran) from any 'camp' seems to have...

Johann

There is a lot of evidence to both of them being members of the MB. I'm afraid I've never heard of this about Nasser from any serious source, or even amongst the popular conspiracy theories in the region. I'm curious to know where you've picked this up from - I've never you seen you say something o...

Johann

Sanku, Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) which opposes western intervention in Syria and anywhere else in the world, and which often works with regimes and movements utterly opposed to the West has confirmed that it alone has dealt with 355 deaths and 3600 injured from what appears to be nerve agent poi...

Search found 2073 matches